Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 1: "Winterfell" Review
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS! Read at your own peril.
“Winterfell” ***
“Step by step, one distasteful task after another, I made my way from the slums of Myer to the Small Council Chamber. Influence grows like a weed. I tended mine patiently till its tanderls reached from the Red Keep all the way around the world… I have no doubt that all you want will be yours time. If you have the stomach to wait for it… hello, my old friend” Varys.
Purposefully paraphrasing Varys incredible speech to Lord Tyrion in season three when he reveals how he was cut and how the lifetime he has waited to achieve the vengeance. The point he’s making is said more susinkly by Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs “all good things to those who wait.” Well, I have waited for twenty-three years for this episode and, although it isn’t among the great episodes of Games of Thrones, the wait made it worth it.
I first read The Song of Ice and Fire when it came out in 1996. I was in sixth grade. I was obsessed with medieval fantasy and fiction. Tolkien had been my favorite author, and although he has been replaced by others, I still cherish him. George R. R. Martin’s world is the closest I’ve ever read to Tolkien in terms of being complete and believable. I became obsessed with the realm of Westeros just as I had Middle Earth. For twenty-three years, I have waited for two of my favorite characters, Jon Snow and Arya Stark, to meet again. I knew their reunion would bring me to tears. Jon, being an outsider in his own family, had one sibling whom he was closest to: Arya. Like Varys, I learned to be patient and to wait and finally this reunion has arrived.
Game of Thrones is an epic in the true sense with parallel narratives occurring not only in Westeros, but over the entire world. Yet, one could say, that the core of the stories have been the Stark children. Yes, other major players, Dany, Cersei, Tyrion, Jamie, all have incredible arcs and important roles to play, the journey of the Stark children is really what the story has been built around. Seeing them finally come back together is the fulfilment of everything this series has set up. If the results are a little disappointing, of course they are, they’ve been built to for decades. That being said, “Winterfell”, like most of the beginning season episodes with Games of Thrones, takes time to arrange the chess pieces for the action to come. I assume that the fight with the Night King will take place in episode three, leaving three episodes to deal with Cersei. As far as narrative setups go, every piece is now in place for one of the greatest battles in stories and television.
As an episode, “Winterfell” on its own could feel distant, uninteresting, slow, but as a brick leading to the capstone, it works well. One way it works is by bringing together characters who have not seen each other for years. The other way it works is as a mirror to “Winter is Coming,” the pilot of the show.
As far as reunions go, Arya’s were by far the best; even little moments like the Hound’s insult to her that we all know was actually a compliment; or the way Arya and Gendry looked at each other. As a friend of mine said, “this proves that Arya has been thinking about Gendry’s abs since the second season.” (Holy shit… I had no idea how true this would be proven by the second episode in the season). In another world, they would have been a great couple, but, in this world, Arya’s journey has taken most of her humanity from her. One of the only people who has been changed more is Bran. Bran lurks and has become an omnipresent force, just like his abilities. Because he can see the future, he is always in the right place at the right time.
Seeing Jon arrive in Winterfell, riding beside Dany is a spectacle to behold. At the end of this story, I both look forward to and fear that spectacle is mainly what we have awaiting us. There’s nothing wrong with stories that use spectacle in extravagant ways especially as their move towards the climax. But, a moment that wasn’t a spectacle was Jon jumping off his horse and running over to Bran to kiss him on the head. It mirrors the way he said goodbye to Bran all of those years ago. Bran admits “he’s not quite a man” because he is the three-eyed raven.
Another reunion that I looked forward to was Tyrion and Sansa. Sansa has become perhaps the best player of the game, able to take out Lord Petyr Baelish, whom many thought was the best player of the game. Tyrion at one point was also one of the best players, but, his has been reduced to a humbled adviser. His advice has proved wrong and cost the alliance greatly. It will again by trusting his sister to send the Lannister army north. As Sansa says to him when he says he trusted his sister, “And I thought you were the smartest man I’d ever met.” But when they meet, there is a hint of admiration and respect from each of them. Sansa demonstrates how much she has grown when Tyrion says, “Last time we saw each other, I believe, was at Joffrey's wedding. Dreadful event” (indeed Tyrion was specifically humiliated by him), and she responds, “It had its moments.”
But more impressive than the reunions were the mirrors to “Winter is Coming.” The episode begins with the “King” and “Queen” arriving, just as “Winter is Coming” began with Robert and Cersei arriving at the capitol. In the original, both Bran and Arya run and look at the incoming army. Here, a random kid climbs a tree, very reminiscent of Zacchias from the Gospel climbing a tree to see Christ approaching. I wonder if either Dany or Jon could be a messiah figure? Jon’s embrace and kiss of Bran shows the connection to when he last saw him, while Arya not being present at the procession is similar to her being late in “Winter is Coming.” Sansa says “Winterfell is yours, your Grace” which is what her mother said to Cersei when she arrived. But perhaps the most important mirror happens at the end of the episode. Bran tells Sam that he’s waiting for an old friend. He of course means Jamie who he hasn’t seen since Jamie pushed him out of the tower window crippling him. Their glance at each other at the end shows how much Jamie has changed.
The spectacle of the episode reaches its height with the predictable dragon ride, setting up the reveal of Jon’s ancestry and paralleling the waterfall cave seen with Ygritte when she says they should stay there forever; Dany only says they could stay a 1,000 years.
But the undercurrent of all of this is that the Night King is on his way and the characters of Westeros are still dealing with their own petty squabbles. Sam telling Jon about his heritage certainly complicates that. However, the Night King is coming and in the best mirror sequence and image in this opening episode, the White Walkers leave their artwork, seen in the first scene of the entire series, on the walls of Last Hearth with a great joke played off about blue eyes.
All in all this is a good episode. It belongs with some of the good openings of seasons, but it certainly does not rise to the heights of greatness that Thrones is capable of.
